Daily Archives: September 7, 2012

Two weeks after sand mining proposals for hundreds of rural acres in Baker County were withdrawn to allow more time for regulatory agencies to study the plans, a county commissioner has hatched a plan to stop them permanently.

Commissioner Mark Hartley had planned to introduce an ordinance to prohibit sand mining in agricultural areas at the end of the commission meeting on the evening of September 4. But he decided at the last minute to postpone the matter, saying he needed more time to review the draft ordinance before moving forward with his idea.

“I want to read it over to make sure it’s exactly what we want to do,” he said after the meeting was adjourned shortly before 6 pm.

The county’s present zoning code allows mining operations on lands with agricultural zoning designations by special exception. Mr. Hartley’s proposal, if adopted at a later date, would restrict sand mining to industrial zones only.

The proposed ordinance states that continuing to permit sand mining on agricultural lands, which make up more than half of the county’s total acreage excluding national forest land, is not in compliance with the county’s comprehensive, long-range planning mission.

Since its opening on September 5, 2006, the members and volunteers of Faith Bible Church along with several other loving and kind contributors have made it possible to serve well over 10,000 meals to our local seniors.

Central Elementary Center in Sanderson has also been the place for our crime watch meetings sponsored by the sheriff’s department, the Community Action Outreach meetings, Monday night exercise class and several health-related classes sponsored by our local health department.

In anticipation of our sixth anniversary, we closed down to do some repairs to the center’s kitchen and dining room and to make some additions such as a new TV, computers, new doors and windows.

When you watch a game like Friday’s match-up between the Wildcats and 6A power Columbia High it’s easy to wonder “what if?” What if the Cats had scored on their opening drive? What if some of the dropped passes had been caught? What if they could have stopped Tiger quarterback Jayce Barber from completing his passes? Would the outcome have been different?

Questions like that are a fool’s errand, because they didn’t happen. What did happen was the Tigers completely dominated the Wildcats on the way to a 50-0 victory and one of the worst defeats in the history of Wildcat football.

The Wildcats will likely bounce back from the first loss this season that counted, and a comprehensive defeat may entice players to come back and go at it harder. That’s what Coach Ryan Sulkowski and his staff and team expect, and what followers of Wildcat football expect.

As a player, Friday’s game was one to put in a back pocket and remember when adversity strikes in other games. You pull it out and remember the feeling of walking off the field at the end of the game shell-shocked. You tell yourself this is not going to happen again. That’s what good teams do.

And the Wildcats are a good team.

There are positives to take from Friday’s game, though not a lot of them. The Wildcats hit hard, they chased, they fought for yardage and kept their heads up. Those are qualities that will serve them the rest of the season.

The Cats started strong. Falon Lee took the opening kickoff and cut and slashed 28 yards to the 35. On three successive plays he drove into Tiger territory to the CHS 43.

But at that point the drive broke down. The Wildcats punted and pinned the Tigers at the 3-yard line.

But a Top 5 team doesn’t stay pinned for long. The Tigers embarked on a 10-play, 97-yard drive for a touchdown and it defined the game.

The Wildcats knew they would be up against one of the best running games in the state. So they designed their game plan around stopping the run.

“If they were going to beat us, their quarterback was going to have to throw the ball and complete some passes,” said Coach Ryan Sulkowski.